Changing the message IDs used in log files

You can change the default format for message IDs in server logs by setting the com.ibm.websphere.logging.messageId.version system property.

Before you begin

Deprecated feature: Beginning with WebSphere® Application Server Version 6.0, logging files are formatted according to a standardized system. However, the default runtime behavior is still configured to use the older format. In new releases of WebSphere Application Server, the message IDs that are written to log files will be changed to ensure they do not conflict with other IBM® products. The default runtime behavior is still configured to use the older message IDs, deprecated in Version 8.5.

As a result of the default runtime behavior, you might see a mixture of messages that use 4–letter message prefixes and 5–letter message prefixes. The information in this topic explains how to change your configuration so that the messages consistently show with 5–letter message prefixes. The default behavior has not changed to minimize the impact on customers that depend on the existence of the 4–letter message prefixes.

The following is a sample of an entry in a trace.log file using a default message ID. Note that the message ID is PMON0001A

[1/26/05 10:17:12:529 EST] 0000000a PMIImpl       A   PMON0001A: PMI is enabled

A sample of the same entry using a new message ID follows. Note that the message ID is CWPMI0001A. All new WebSphere Application Server message IDs begin with 'CW'.

[1/26/05 10:17:12:529 EST] 0000000a PMIImpl       A   CWPMI0001A: PMI is enabled.

About this task

If you are using a logging tool that uses the standardized format, you might want to change the default configuration settings to format the logging output appropriately. You will need to change the configuration for each Java virtual machine (JVM) in the cell if you want the output formatting to be the same across application servers.

Procedure

To configure logging files so that they use the newer, 5–letter error message prefixes for each process, use the following commands with the wsadmin utility:

Using Jacl:

set cfgJvmList [$AdminConfig list JavaVirtualMachine] 
set cfgJvm [lindex $cfgJvmList JavaVirtualMachine] 
$AdminConfig create Property $cfgJvm {{name com.ibm.websphere.logging.messageId.version} {value 6} {required false}} 
$AdminConfig save

Using Jython:
```
ls = java.lang.System.getProperty("line.separator")
cfgJvmList = AdminConfig.list("JavaVirtualMachine").split(ls)
print cfgJvmList
cfgJvm = cfgJvmList[JavaVirtualMachine] 
AdminConfig.create('Property', cfgJvm, [['name', 'com.ibm.websphere.logging.messageId.version'], ['value', '6'], 
['required', 'false']]) 
AdminConfig.save()
```
Where JavaVirtualMachine is the number of the process that you want to use.

When you specify the process, the first process listed is zero (0), the second process is one (1), and so on. Make the changes for each JVM in the cell for consistent output formatting.

Important: Restart the application server for the changes to take effect.

To change the configuration so that the log files contain the newer, 5–letter message prefixes in the startServer.log or stopServer.log files, modify the startServer and stopServer scripts in the install_root/bin directory.
Add the following line of code to the :WRITE_PROPERTIES_FILE section of the scripts:
```
>> %TMPJAVAPROPFILE% echo com.ibm.websphere.logging.messageId.version=6
```
Within these scripts, append the following code to the end of the existing D_ARGS parameter:
```
$DEBUG -Dcom.ibm.websphere.logging.messageId.version=6 
```

Results

Message IDs written to log files will now be compliant with the new standard.